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Description/Abstract

This paper investigates the application of analog adaptive techniques to the area of dynamic sensor compensation, of which there is little reported work in the literature. The case is illustrated by showing how the response of a load cell can be improved to speed up the process of measurement. The load cell is a sensor with an oscillatory output in which the measurand contributes to the response parameters. Thus, a compensation filter needs to track variation in measurand whereas a simple, fixed filter is only valid at one specific load value. To facilitate this investigation, computer models for the load cell and the adaptive compensation filter have been developed. To allow a practical implementation of the adaptive techniques, a novel piecewise linearization technique is proposed in order to vary a floating voltage-controlled resistor in a linear manner over a wide range. Simulation and practical results are presented, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.